A welcome home for Green Bay WWII fighter pilot

John Des Jardins (left) thanks those involved in the funeral Sunday of his uncle, James Des Jardins, including World War II re-enactors Jeff Rowsam (center) and Gil Snyder. James Des Jardins was a World War II fighter pilot. Credit: Michael McLoone for the Journal Sentinel

A week after James Des Jardins celebrated his 21st birthday, his P-51 Mustang crashed into Germany's countryside. The pilot and his plane would lay undisturbed for decades until recent dredging uncovered the wreckage.

The discovery, and subsequent identification, allowed the Des Jardins family to make his final resting place in his hometown near the memorial marker for his older brother, Earl, who died two months before James in a B-24 crash in Europe.

Two sons. Two Western Union telegrams. One heartbroken family.

Like thousands of other American families who would hang gold star banners in their picture windows, the Des Jardins family lost two young men with bright futures ahead of them. The youngest son, Arnold, was not called to military service in World War II because the Des Jardins family had sacrificed enough.

Arnold's son, John Des Jardins, grew up hungering for information about his uncles, eventually hanging memorial displays of their pictures, medals and Army Air Corps patches in his Outagamie County Circuit Courtroom. John Des Jardins, a circuit court judge since 1994 who lives in Appleton, was shocked to learn last year that his uncle James' plane had been found in a field near Einhausen, a small community near the Rhine River.

He wanted to honor his uncle's sacrifice and celebrate his brief life.

"We want this to be an uplifting patriotic event," John Des Jardins said before flying to Pearl Harbor last week to return his uncle's remains to Wisconsin. "All of his friends are gone now. It's not a time for great sadness; it's a time for respect and thanking him and his generation who did so much for the rights and privileges we take for granted."

Both James and Earl Des Jardins were in high school in Green Bay when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Like millions of Americans, they joined the military, each becoming a pilot - Earl in bombers, James in fighters. The older brother saw action first, writing to James in July 1944 to tell him not to hurry over to Europe but giving him advice on what to bring, such as a rubber air mattress and a small ax to pound tent stakes.

Two months after Earl Des Jardins sent the letter with the opening words "Combat is rough and don't let anyone tell you different," his B-24 was shot down in France, killing everyone on board. He was 22. Then James was lost Nov. 25. Three days after Christmas the second Western Union telegram delivered to the Des Jardins' Green Bay home reported James as missing in action.

Earl's bomber was found a couple of decades ago, and John Des Jardins and his father traveled to France for dedication of a memorial at the crash site. Earl's remains were buried in a mass grave with the rest of his 10-member B-24 crew in Kentucky. A memorial plaque was placed at the Green Bay cemetery. But James' whereabouts were a mystery until last year.

Though thousands of American troops remain missing on distant battlefields, once remains are found the U.S. military goes to great lengths to identify and return them to families, no matter how many years have elapsed. Using DNA from John Des Jardins, the military recently confirmed the remains found with the P-51 in Germany were, indeed, James Des Jardins.

And so on Sunday, dozens of family members, friends, well-wishers and veterans - including men who fought in the war that claimed James and Earl Des Jardins - gathered in a funeral home within sight of Lambeau Field to pay their respects to an American hero. James Des Jardins' dress uniform jacket and brown leather bomber jacket were displayed on either side of a small white casket. Bulletin boards were adorned with small black and white photos of a smiling James Des Jardins wearing his high school graduation cap and gown and grinning from the cockpit of his P-51 Mustang.

A scheduled flyover Sunday of a P-51 and two World War II-era T-6 trainers in the missing man formation over Lambeau Field was scrubbed because of bad weather. Tony Buechler volunteered to fly his P-51 to honor the memory of pilots like James Des Jardins who flew the same plane though under much different conditions.

"It takes some special training to fly that type of airplane and stay alive in it," Buechler said in a phone interview last week. "Remember these kids in World War II were 19 years old, they took them from never flying anything to flying a P-51 in just 50 hours of training."

In a short funeral service, John Des Jardins paraphrased the Gettysburg Address: . . . from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.

"Those words ring true today," John Des Jardins said.

James Des Jardins' remains were driven to Fort Howard Memorial Park in Green Bay in a procession that included a 1942 military truck and a 1945 jeep driven by Jeff Rowsam and Gil Snyder, members of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association and sons of World War II veterans who dressed in period uniforms.

In a cemetery brightened by trees turned orange and yellow, mourners unfurled umbrellas and listened to the steady drum of raindrops on the green canopy covering James Des Jardins' final resting place. Before they listened to a firing squad fire three volleys and Staff Sgt. Tyler Terrell play "Taps" on his bugle, they listened to Pastor Douglas Moorhead of Spring Lake Church recite Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

"I know in America many soldiers lived and breathed those words," Moorhead said.

Then an honor guard folded an American flag and presented it to James Des Jardins' nephew, with thanks from a grateful nation.

About Meg Jones

Meg Jones is a general assignment reporter who specializes in military and veterans issues. Meg was part of a team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2003, and is the author of “World War II Milwaukee.”